Posted on 09/14/2004 11:56:21 PM PDT by ambrose
Ex-Guard Typist Recalls Memos Criticizing Bush
But the commander's secretary says she thinks the ones that surfaced last week are fakes.
By James Rainey
Times Staff Writer
September 15, 2004
George W. Bush's commanding officer in the Texas Air National Guard wrote memos more than 30 years ago objecting to efforts to gloss over the young lieutenant's shortcomings and failure to take a flight physical, the officer's former secretary said Tuesday night.
But Marian Carr Knox of Houston said she thought four memos unveiled by CBS News last week were forgeries — not copies of the ones she typed at the time.
Knox, 86, worked for 23 years at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston and served as a typist for Killian, then Bush's squadron commander, and several other officers.
In a brief interview Tuesday, she confirmed that Killian had concerns about Bush's failure to take his physical examination in 1972, which prevented him from flying, and about efforts by higher-ups to protect the future president from the fallout.
Knox told several newspapers that Killian kept the personal files on Bush, and on other topics, in a desk drawer as a way of "covering his back" in anticipation of later questions about his actions. She retired in 1979, before Killian's death, and said she did not know what became of the files.
Knox said in several interviews that the four memos first shown last week on CBS News did not look authentic. After speaking briefly to The Times, Knox said she was tired of talking about the subject and turned the phone over to her son, Patrick M. Carr.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Her story changes with each new interview.
Riiight. She's 86. Probably can't remember what she had for breakfast this morning.
My suspicion is the reporters are asking her highly leading questions, which is why her responses seem to vary from interview to interview.
Oh this is making more and more sense by the hour...
As does her age. Hasn't she been 82, 86 and 87?
In any case she still lacks credability. Why if there were ever "authentic" memos would someone not use those ones?
Didn't she claim in one interview that she never typed anything of the sort? Now she's claiming that she did?
Why would a high ranking officer worried about something enough to have CYA allow a secretary who would surely spread this to be privy to it?
Why wouldn't his wife know of his concerns?
Anyone want to keep a running list on her twists and alterations in the story? I saw on my local NBC news tonight that they reported that she said the memos are fake but the content real..this feels like where the Dems are gonna take this and I think we need to proactively erase this avenue.
Burckett, on an anti-Bush dirt-digging expedition, looked her up and called her in the last year or so. He got his "facts" from her memory, and typed what he remembered of her recollections on his computer, as what we know today as the forged CBS memos.
I'd like to depose her under oath, and see if he's called her and chatted about Bush in the TANG in the last few years.
Just my hunch.
See my theory above, please.
She doesn't have to be a documents expert to say that she didn't type the documents!
Like all aspects of the debate, the views of the principals tend to coincide with their feelings on the election. Knox identified herself as an opponent of Bush, whom she called unfit for office. Killian's son, meanwhile, called himself a Republican who would vote for the president as "the best alternative."
Yeah, but they both agree that the documents are forged!
Could very well be. Bet a whole lot of people are deposed under oath before this is all over with.
This will all be cleared up when CBS provides documents that prove that Microsft Word was used extensively by National Guard units in the early 70's.
Now I got it. They're "Historical Fiction". 60 years from now some movie producer, book writer or TV chief will find them and a new "Roots" will be born. Crapola!
My 2 farts worth.
SHE'S A DEMOCRAT
I'M SURE SHE GOT A PHONE CALL. She's been quiet until now. Killian's son told Hannity that he had talked to her, and at that time she agreed with Gary that the memos were fakes, and she never mentioned anything about any bad memos. Suddenly she remembers there were some, but just not the ones CBS has .. GIVE ME A BREAK ..!!!
STOP THE DAMN LYING .. IT'S JUST GOT TO STOP.
They are feeding her lines and leading her on. It is obvious.
I agree with that and would not be surprised if this lady becomes a basis for more CBS/Rather spin Wednesday.
The "OETR" mistake is a fly in my theoretical ointment. Burckett should have known to type OER. Otherwise, I think the secretary was a source of info, perhaps unwittingly (as to their end-use).
For example, she probably was trying to remember all the old rumors and shop-talk, and came up with Stodges. But she got her years wrong, and Burckett used Stodges anyway.
At some point, I'll bet she was a source for some of the memo info. Too bad they couldn't have talked her into creating the forgeries herself, on an old IBM Selectric!
Those would have been much better than using the MS Word defaults!
Danged if you didn't steal my theory before I could even think of it. ;)
I think you're right.
Checking her phone records would be interesting based upon what you say.
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